DETECTION OF VERTICAL TRANSMISSION OF HUMAN-IMMUNODEFICIENCY-VIRUS TYPE-1 BY A COMMERCIAL POLYMERASE CHAIN-REACTION ASSAY

In a prospective study, a commercial polymerase chain reaction (PCR) s ystem was compared with a conventional procedure, based on PCR and hyb ridization with a radio-labeled probe, for the detection of human immu nodeficiency virus (HIV) infection in 131 blood samples from 80 childr en born to HIV-seropositive mothers. Twenty-three of these children we re HIV infected. The sensitivity and specificity of the commercial ass ay as compared with the conventional PCR procedure were 100% and 95.1% , respectively. This commercial method simplifies the performance of t he conventional PCR technique and can be used to detect HIV type 1 ver tical transmission.